Too-Specific Top 10 - Gravedigger

<h6 style="text-align: right;">(<span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Eternal Witness" href="#" target="_blank">Eternal Witness</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> | Art by <a href="http://www.rahnart.com/">Chris Rahn</a>)</h6>
<h1>A Message From Eternity</h1>
<p>There are few zones in <em>Magic</em> that can be taken advantage of more than the graveyard. From it, creatures can be reanimated, spells can be cast, and cards can be returned to hand, and that's just the beginning. For many decks, the graveyard has earned the nickname "the second hand". The blessings of the graveyard are enabled by cards such as <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Eternal Witness" href="#" target="_blank">Eternal Witness</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, allowing sequences of plays that would never be possible otherwise.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Eternal Witness"></div></div>
<p><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Eternal Witness" href="#" target="_blank">Eternal Witness</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> checks a lot of boxes for being a potent (albeit simple) card. It's a creature, which provides both a body and a multitude of potential synergies, and it has an enters-the-battlefield effect, which makes the effect immediate and potentially repeatable. At its worst, it's a chump blocker that "cantrips", and at its best, it's part of an engine.</p>
<p>In layman's terms, the card's pretty good, but its main strengths lie in those synergies; a card-advantage-neutral chump blocker often doesn't make the cut, especially when it has so many other redundant options out there for a similar effect. However, while some of those redundancies may lack the same synergies as <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Eternal Witness" href="#" target="_blank">Eternal Witness</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, they also might be more potent on their own, or even have different synergies to tap into. So what are some of these redundancies for this effect?</p>
<hr />
<h2>A Glance at History</h2>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Regrowth"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Bala Ged Recovery"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Life from the Loam"></div></div>
<p>The most obvious versions of this effect have almost the same text as <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Eternal Witness" href="#" target="_blank">Eternal Witness</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, but with some key differences. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Regrowth" href="#" target="_blank">Regrowth</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> lacks the synergies that creatures might benefit from, but it comes at a more easily-achievable two mana, rather than three. It also benefits from instant and sorcery synergies (although those are admittedly rarer in green).</p>
<p><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Bala Ged Recovery" href="#" target="_blank">Bala Ged Recovery</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is a bit costlier than <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Regrowth" href="#" target="_blank">Regrowth</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, but it benefits both from its sorcery status and, most importantly, some added modality. If you're missing a land drop, or you're playing a <em>Landfall</em> deck and would get extra benefit from playing a land, you might instead opt to play <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Bala Ged Sanctuary" href="#" target="_blank">Bala Ged Sanctuary</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>.</p>
<p><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Life from the Loam" href="#" target="_blank">Life from the Loam</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is the odd one out here. It comes in at the same cost as <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Regrowth" href="#" target="_blank">Regrowth</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, but it only grabs lands. This comes with additional benefits, though: it can grab three cards from the graveyard instead of just one, and it can return itself to hand using its <em>Dredge</em> ability. Sometimes, the restriction on which cards we can recur will actually improve the rest of the spell's quality, potentially providing truly fantastic bonuses, as we can see from the land-grabbing, graveyard-filling powerhouse that is <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Life from the Loam" href="#" target="_blank">Life from the Loam</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>.</p>
<p>All of these classics are staples in and of themselves, and thus aren't the most new or exciting replacements for <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Eternal Witness" href="#" target="_blank">Eternal Witness</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, but their power, and the precedent they set, makes them worth mentioning before we tackle the less common replacements. Let's get to some of those now!</p>
<hr />
<h2>Uncovering Hidden Relics</h2>
<p>As stated previously, one of <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Eternal Witness" href="#" target="_blank">Eternal Witness</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>'s main strengths is its ability to abuse the enters-the-battlefield effect for extra benefit. However, not all decks are capable of taking advantage of this synergy in the first place, and others may not need to reuse it. For those decks, Witness may not be worth the slot (or the price tag).</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Fungal Rebirth"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Evolution Charm"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Long Rest"></div></div>
<p>Our first one-off recursion spell is <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Fungal Rebirth" href="#" target="_blank">Fungal Rebirth</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, which has a lot going for it over our Staple. At the cost of some minor restrictions, it gives twice as many bodies as <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Eternal Witness" href="#" target="_blank">Eternal Witness</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, and it does so at instant speed. This makes it a fantastic fit for decks that utilize Aristocrats strategies, but even outside of that, it can provide life-saving blockers.</p>
<p><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Evolution Charm" href="#" target="_blank">Evolution Charm</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, like <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Bala Ged Recovery" href="#" target="_blank">Bala Ged Recovery</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, has a lot of modal benefit. Only returning creatures may be a bit of a pain, but in creature-based strategies, both the recursion and the ability to give one creature flying are incredibly relevant, especially considering green's penchant for big creatures with little to no evasion. The ability to get a basic land card into your hand might even save you in a pinch, if you need to fix your mana.</p>
<p>Finally, there's a whole class of one-off effects that can recur large amounts of cards immediately. Featured above is <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Long Rest" href="#" target="_blank">Long Rest</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, but other contenders in this category are <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Gaea&#039;s Will" href="#" target="_blank">Gaea&#039;s Will</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Praetor&#039;s Counsel" href="#" target="_blank">Praetor&#039;s Counsel</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Seasons Past" href="#" target="_blank">Seasons Past</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, and more. These spells are especially relevant in their ability to give a large burst of card advantage at once, something green can struggle with without the help of an already-large board state. Playing one of these can especially help if you have a bad habit of overextending your board and you quickly need to recover from a board wipe.</p>
<hr />
<h2>Recycling Plants</h2>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Genesis"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Paleoloth"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Holistic Wisdom"></div></div>
<p><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Genesis" href="#" target="_blank">Genesis</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is a much more straightforward way to repeatedly recur creatures. All you need is to get it into your graveyard. This makes it perfect for graveyard-centric decks that can mill themselves, putting <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Genesis" href="#" target="_blank">Genesis</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> into the grave alongside a bunch of valuable targets for it. It's a little slow, and a little costly, but it's also of a comparable speed to many of the engines that can be created using <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Eternal Witness" href="#" target="_blank">Eternal Witness</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>.</p>
<p>The Timmys and Tammys of the Commander community might be enamored by <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Paleoloth" href="#" target="_blank">Paleoloth</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, which can turn the creatures of a green stompy deck into repeatable recursion. Like the aforementioned <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Long Rest" href="#" target="_blank">Long Rest</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and Co., it can also help you recover from board wipes, or maybe just put an interesting spin on the archetype's normal capabilities.</p>
<p><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Holistic Wisdom" href="#" target="_blank">Holistic Wisdom</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> may just be the most flexible card out of this batch, offering several opportunities to recur cards of all types. Although it doesn't tend to give the same amount of card advantage, and although it's much more difficult to create an engine with it, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Holistic Wisdom" href="#" target="_blank">Holistic Wisdom</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> may just save your bacon should you need to quickly reuse multiple cards from your graveyard.</p>
<hr />
<h2>Timeless Wisdom</h2>
<p><a href="https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/179.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-69126 size-full" src="https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/179.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="858" srcset="https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/179.jpg 1200w, https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/179-300x215.jpg 300w, https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/179-1024x732.jpg 1024w, https://edhrecstatic.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/179-768x549.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /></a></p>
<h6 style="text-align: right;">(<span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Timeless Witness" href="#" target="_blank">Timeless Witness</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> | Art by <a href="https://www.artstation.com/deruch">Deruchenko Alexander</a>)</h6>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Timeless Witness"></div></div>
<p>It's only natural that we feature the spiritual successor to <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Eternal Witness" href="#" target="_blank">Eternal Witness</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> from <em>Modern Horizons 2</em>: <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Timeless Witness" href="#" target="_blank">Timeless Witness</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. Although not strictly better (since <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Timeless Witness" href="#" target="_blank">Timeless Witness</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> costs more), this card takes all of the benefits of <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Eternal Witness" href="#" target="_blank">Eternal Witness</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and adds more.</p>
<p>One of the more common ways to abuse an ETB trigger is via reanimation, using cards such as <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Nethroi, Apex of Death" href="#" target="_blank">Nethroi, Apex of Death</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Reveillark" href="#" target="_blank">Reveillark</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, and many, many more. When utilizing these strategies, the difference in mana cost between <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Timeless Witness" href="#" target="_blank">Timeless Witness</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and our Staple is negligible or completely irrelevant. As a bonus, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Timeless Witness" href="#" target="_blank">Timeless Witness</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> isn't just stuck in the graveyard if you lack these pieces - it can <em>Eternalize</em> right out of the yard too, and is thus reusable simply by itself.</p>
<p>Some of this card's best synergies are with tokens. <em>Populating</em> the token created by <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Timeless Witness" href="#" target="_blank">Timeless Witness</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>'s <em>Eternalize</em> ability allows one to recur cards with ease. This is especially useful, since <em>Populate</em> is much more common in green than flickering, blinking, reanimating, and bouncing, and token strategies are very common.</p>
<p>There are a lot of places to utilize the recursion spells I've mentioned in this article. The one that I've chosen is <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Karador, Ghost Chieftain" href="#" target="_blank">Karador, Ghost Chieftain</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, where the recursion of noncreature cards (using <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Holistic Wisdom" href="#" target="_blank">Holistic Wisdom</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Regrowth" href="#" target="_blank">Regrowth</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Timeless Witness" href="#" target="_blank">Timeless Witness</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, and more) comes at a premium.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__deck mtgh"><span class="edhrecp__deck-s" name="The Karadoor of Death" site="edhrec" archidekt_link="" cards="[Commander]
*1 Karador, Ghost Chieftain
[/Commander]
[Creatures]
*1 Acidic Slime
*1 Avacyn&#039;s Pilgrim
*1 Birds of Paradise
*1 Blood Artist
*1 Deathrite Shaman
*1 Diligent Farmhand
*1 Elves of Deep Shadow
*1 Fauna Shaman
*1 Fiend Artisan
*1 Gravebreaker Lamia
*1 Grim Haruspex
*1 Hermit Druid
*1 Karmic Guide
*1 Llanowar Elves
*1 Nethroi, Apex of Death
*1 Plaguecrafter
*1 Protean Hulk
*1 Qasali Pridemage
*1 Ramunap Excavator
*1 Ravenous Chupacabra
*1 Reclamation Sage
*1 Reveillark
*1 Saffi Eriksdotter
*1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
*1 Satyr Wayfinder
*1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
*1 Shriekmaw
*1 Skull Prophet
*1 Spore Frog
*1 Stinkweed Imp
*1 Stitcher&#039;s Supplier
*1 Sun Titan
*1 Timeless Witness
*1 Underrealm Lich
*1 Viscera Seer
*1 Wood Elves
*1 Zulaport Cutthroat
[/Creatures]
[Enchantments]
*1 Animate Dead
*1 Death&#039;s Oasis
*1 Greater Good
*1 Holistic Wisdom
*1 Journey to Eternity
*1 Pattern of Rebirth
*1 Sylvan Library
[/Enchantments]
[Instants]
*1 Anguished Unmaking
*1 Eladamri&#039;s Call
*1 Entomb
*1 Grisly Salvage
*1 Path to Exile
*1 Swords to Plowshares
[/Instants]
[Artifacts]
*1 Altar of Dementia
*1 Birthing Pod
*1 Skullclamp
[/Artifacts]
[Sorceries]
*1 Bala Ged Recovery
*1 Buried Alive
*1 Demonic Tutor
*1 Edge of Autumn
*1 Eerie Ultimatum
*1 Life from the Loam
*1 Living Death
*1 Reanimate
*1 Regrowth
*1 Search for Tomorrow
*1 Unmarked Grave
*1 Victimize
[/Sorceries]
[Lands]
*1 Bojuka Bog
*1 Canopy Vista
*1 Caves of Koilos
*1 Command Tower
*1 Exotic Orchard
*5 Forest
*1 Godless Shrine
*1 High Market
*1 Indatha Triome
*1 Isolated Chapel
*1 Llanowar Wastes
*1 Marsh Flats
*1 Overgrown Tomb
*1 Phyrexian Tower
*2 Plains
*1 Sandsteppe Citadel
*1 Sunpetal Grove
*5 Swamp
*1 Temple Garden
*1 Undergrowth Stadium
*1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
*1 Vault of Champions
*1 Verdant Catacombs
*1 Windswept Heath
*1 Woodland Cemetery
[/Lands]"></span></div>

<hr />
<p>How often do you run recursion in your decks? What sort of decks do you feel need them most? What synergistic recursion pieces do you put in these decks? I'd love to hear down in the comments, and as always, thanks for reading!</p>


genesis

Too-Specific Top 10 - Gravedigger

Staple Remover — Eternal Witness